The question before you tonight. Not,”If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” The question is, “If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I have been thinking a lot about Martin Luther King and his sacrifices. I have been thinking about how different my world would be without his efforts. Aside from all of the great advances for civil right and challenging human kind to be better there was another lesson that I take from his life. Coming from a well off family, he was not fighting for himself. Dr. King was well educated, he could have chosen to be anything, but he chose to dedicate his life to bettering his brothers and sisters, he wanted to leave the world a better place than when he came into this world. The day before Dr. King was assassinated he delivered his I’ve been to the mountaintop speech. Eerily sounding like he knew he was about to die he proclaims his lack of fear for death. Dr. King says “And so I’m happy, tonight. I’m not 
worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!” He knew what was coming and still he pressed on courageously knowing the consequences that would come from those with hate in their hearts. Dr. King was selflessly and willingly risking his life for the possibility of helping a brother in need. He would be assassinated the following day on April 4th 1968 on his way to dinner from the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
I question myself, in my life, how do I act in my daily life being faced with much smaller opportunities to help people with fewer consequences. Dr. King put the advancement of the sanitation workers before his own life, they were fighting for the right to be treated as working men. On his last public address in Memphis Tennessee, Dr. King had no concern for him self, no concern for his safety, he was acting purely on what he knew to right. How beautiful, to be so selfless and compassionate. It is almost embarrassing to think that I second guess myself at times about speaking up to defend someone or to stop what I am doing and help a stranger. I will be challenging myself to be bolder and less inhibited about helping a stranger in need, I also challenge each of us to do the same. The only way to lead is from the front.